Liberal Democrats

The Labor Party and the smaller Liberal Democrats announced an agreement Friday to form a coalition government for Scotland's first Parliament in nearly 300 years. The parties agreed to set aside their dispute over whether to charge university tuition fees, referring it to a commission for study. Every party except Labor wants to repeal the fees, and creating the panel apparently put off the prospect that the Scottish government would break with national policy on the...

PHOENIX (Reuters) - Arizona Republicans on Saturday censured U.S. Senator John McCain, the party's 2008 presidential nominee, for a record they called too "liberal," in a sign of continued distrust some party members in the state have for the so-called political maverick. The resolution passed by a voice vote at an Arizona Republican Party meeting of 1,600 committee members at a church in Tempe, Arizona, said Tim Sifert, a spokesman for the state organization. ...

The leader of Britain's opposition Liberal Democrats resigned under pressure from the party Saturday, days after he acknowledged battling a drinking problem. Charles Kennedy had initially resisted stepping down despite calls for him to quit from nearly half of the party's lawmakers, saying the Liberal Democrats' rank and file still backed him. He changed course Saturday, saying he was resigning immediately and would not run in the leadership elections he had announced Thursday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The leaders of the Senate Banking Committee appear unlikely to meet their goal of producing a bill by year-end that would wind down major mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac , given the shrinking timeline and the tricky politics. Conservative Republicans favor shutting down the government-run firms and placing control of the nearly $10 trillion housing finance system firmly in the private sector's hand. But liberal...

Japanese Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa and the leader of the opposition Liberal Democrats reached a last-minute compromise Friday on key political reforms. The agreement, which still needs parliamentary approval, could save Hosokawa's government from collapse. He had said he might quit if the reforms were not approved. But the struggle leaves Japan in political disarray at a time when the economy badly needs attention-and only two weeks before Hosokawa is to meet with President Clinton.

One major lesson to be learned from the government-shutdown-fiasco-that-solved-nothing is so simple that it is in danger of being overlooked: You will not get anything done in Washington unless the American people are behind you. Democracy, indeed, works. Thus the Republican shutdown attempt to pry major and necessary changes in government finance and health care policies failed because most Americans were put off, if not sickened, by the GOP's tactics. That's even though many of...

Four years after Japanese voters ejected the Liberal Democratic Party from its longtime lock on power, the party regained control Friday with an effective majority in Japan's influential lower house of parliament. With the Liberal Democratic leader, Ryutaro Hashimoto, as prime minister, the party was already able to set the political agenda in Japan. But the defection of a legislator from the opposition New Frontier Party, giving the Liberal Democrats a bare majority, makes it...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Terms associated with politically liberal groups such as "Emerge" and "ACORN" were used by U.S. tax agents to flag applicants seeking tax-exemption for added scrutiny, according to internal IRS documents released by Democrats on Tuesday. The memos, training materials and other materials are the latest salvo in a controversy that erupted in May over Internal Revenue Service scrutiny and delays of applications from Tea Party groups and other...

Prime Minister Tony Blair's party suffered an embarrassment Friday, losing one parliamentary seat and narrowly holding on to another as many voters switched to an anti-war party. The results were unlikely to destabilize Blair, who was cleared again this week of deliberately exaggerating the threat posed by Saddam Hussein. The Liberal Democrats, the only mainstream party to oppose the U.S.-led invasion, campaigned on an anti-war ticket in Birmingham and Leicester, cities...

- If there's an iron rule in economics, it is Stein's Law (named after Herb, former chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers): "If something cannot go on forever, it will stop. " Detroit, for example, can no longer go on borrowing, spending, raising taxes and dangerously cutting such essential services as street lighting and police protection. So it stops. It goes bust. Cause of death? Corruption, both legal and illegal, plus a classic case of reactionary...

Prime Minister John Major said Friday he will stay in office until national elections due by May 1997, in hopes of building up his party's support after its trouncing in municipal elections this week. But the Conservative leader's goal is threatened by a tiny, one-seat majority in Parliament. Of the 3,000 municipal council seats up for grabs Thursday, the Conservatives lost 536 of the 1,000 seats they defended and were wiped out completely in 10 important cities. The Labor Party gained 432...

By Estelle Shirbon LONDON, June 2 (Reuters) - Three members of Britain's upper house of parliament stood accused on Sunday of offering to use their influence for personal gain in a widening scandal over the improper influence of paying lobbyists over legislators. A series of media sting operations has thrust the lobbying issue into the limelight and already forced a lawmaker from the lower house of parliament, Patrick Mercer, to resign from the ruling...

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party, battered by sex and bribery scandals, lost Sunday's municipal election in Tokyo and appeared to be in a shaky position for parliamentary contests later this month. The Liberal Democrats, who have governed Japan since 1955, lost nearly one-third of their seats in the 128-member Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly, according to final results made public Monday, dropping from 63 to 43 mandates. The Liberal Democrats` poor showing-worse than many had expected-was...

* Clegg may face leadership challenge if party loses vote * Ensnared by sex scandal around party's former chief exec * Opinion polls show Clegg's party narrow favourite to win By Andrew Osborn LONDON, Feb 28 (Reuters) - Fewer than 100,000 residents of an English town that hardly anyone outside Britain has heard of will vote on Thursday in an election that could help determine the political fate of the country's deputy prime minister and, ...

Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto resigned Monday in reaction to his ruling Liberal Democratic Party's defeat in elections dominated by voter anger over his failure to pull Japan out of its worst recession in decades. Hashimoto grimly conceded defeat and said he would step down to take responsibility for the party's winning just 44 seats out of the 126 contested--half of Parliament's upper house--in Sunday's elections. A grim Hashimoto told Japanese television earlier as the dismal election...

Voters in parliamentary elections Sunday gave Japan's governing party a brutal drubbing, setting the stage for the likely resignation of Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto and creating new uncertainties about the country's political and economic course. "The results are attributable to my lack of ability," a grim Hashimoto told Japanese television early Monday. "We could not live up to the people's expectations, and it is all my responsibility." He strongly hinted that he would resign...

Britons vote in national elections Thursday, and the question on the mind of most political professionals is not whether Prime Minister Tony Blair will win a historic third term but by how much. The latest polls show Blair's Labor Party with a comfortable lead of 10 to 14 percentage points. A poll published Wednesday in the Financial Times showed Labor with 39 percent of the vote, the Conservatives with 29 percent and the Liberal Democrats with 27 percent. A Times/ITV News...